"17 And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. 18 And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast. 19 And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him; 20 Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. 21 And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death. 22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God. 23 And Moses spake to the children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses." — Leviticus 24:17-23 KJV.
17. Killeth any man — Smiteth the life of a man, whether bond or free. It is obvious that murder by any other means, as by poison, is included under the phrase “smiteth the life.” Put to death — The reason for regarding murder as a capital offence is because it is an act of the highest sacrilege, an outrage on the likeness of God in man. Human life is incomparably the most sacred thing on earth. Hence its destruction demands, as its penalty, the life of the murderer. To suffer a murder to go unavenged was regarded by both Jews and Greeks as a pollution of the land. Numbers 35:31; OEdipus Tyrannus, 100. No punishment is mentioned for attempted suicide; no guilt attached to one who killed a burglar at night in the act, (Exodus 22:2, 3,) or a slave who died of rigorous treatment a few days after his punishment. Exodus 21:20, 21. The execution of this sentence is expressly committed to the goel, the avenger of blood, after the verdict of guilt had been rendered by the proper tribunal, with at least two agreeing witnesses. Numbers 35:19-30. In regal times the sovereign assumed the execution of justice on the murderer as well as the right of pardon. 2 Samuel 13:39.
18. Beast for beast — Rather, life for life. This is even-handed justice.
20. Breach for breach — Broken limb for broken limb. This punishment is included in that of life for life, as a part is included in the whole. In those primitive times it was a stronger restraint from crime than the modern penalty of a term of imprisonment with good food and healthful labour. The law of retaliation is for the guidance of the judge, and not a provision for the injured person to practice private revenge. It was this perversion of the law which Christ condemns, and not legal punishments enjoined by a magistrate. See Matthew 5:37-39, notes. Society is conserved by law, and law by penalties. There is mercy in this code, inasmuch as it protects the criminal against too severe punishment through the heat of popular indignation or the malice of a hostile party, as that of the priests and scribes against Jesus Christ. There may be injustice done by fixed penalties, but we are convinced that without them there is a liability of doing greater wrong.
22. One manner of law — The Hebrew is more definite and concise — one mishpat, verdict or judgment. Thus the amenability of foreigners to all the penalties of the Hebrew criminal law is emphasized with the utmost distinctness. The stranger — Since many strangers were slaves, it follows from verse 17 that the wilful murder of a slave entailed the same punishment as in the case of a freeman.
CONCLUDING NOTE. — CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
Is the divine requirement of life for life still in force? Jesus Christ did not repeal the law of Moses, or any part of it, as a civil regulation, while he condemned the prevalent perversion of its principles to the purposes of private selfishness, licentiousness, malice, and revenge. He rebuked the bad morality of the Pharisees, which they saw fit to propound in the words of Moses, but contrary to his spirit. It is important to observe that in this law of like for like, containing under a mutable form the changeless principles of even-handed justice, the specification of “life for life,” as it stands in Mosaism, always stands first. See verses 17-20; Exodus 21:23-25; Deuteronomy 19:21. Why, then, if our Lord meant to abrogate the law, did he not begin with its principal and leading title? Because it could hardly be perverted to the purposes of private revenge, hedged in as it was by all the cautious limitations of the Mosaic code. Jesus declares that he who shall say to his brother “Thou fool!” shall be in dagger of the fire of gehenna, that is, of being burnt in the valley of Hinnom — the most awful punishment which a Jew could imagine.
St. Paul did not understand that the law of capital punishment was repealed when he declared that the magistrate held not the sword in vain, but was a terror to evil-doers. What Christ, the legislator greater than Moses, has not repealed, modern sentimentalism will never permanently overthrow; though it is unquestionable that there is a strong tendency at present towards an indiscriminate philanthropy, and a religion divested of those stern features which the representations of the New Testament imply as certainly as do the more express declarations of the Old. The fact that the opposition to the death penalty for murder universally allies itself with the rejection of the eternal punishment of all who obey not Christ, is an argument of no small weight in favour of its present binding force, since errors, like truths, grow in clusters.
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